To make reservations please call (301) 464-5291 or email MariettaHouse@pgparks.com.
Our Nation’s Great Paradox
Grades 6 & up (90 Minutes)
Students will engage in an interactive guided tour learning about the free and enslaved people who lived and labored at Marietta, a tobacco plantation. The special focus of this field trip is on how the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution protected slavery and shaped the lived experiences of multiple enslaved generations. Students exam the Bill of Rights in a group activity to see how civil and human rights are outlined in the first amendment. This activity illustrates how the Bill of Rights affected enslaved people’s pursuits for freedom. After reviewing the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, students can think like a founder! Students will dissect the language of the preamble and discuss what it meant for enslaved people. Students get to use a feather pen and sealing wax to finalize their amendments to the U.S. Constitution!
Founding of the New Government (1776-1791
- Unit Enduring Understandings: Nations are constructed and governed through compromise and conflict.
Topic: United States Constitution
- Students will identify the specific language and goals in the Preamble of the Constitution
Topic: Ratification and the Bill of Rights
- Students will assess key language and the impact of phrases of the Bill of Rights to draw conclusions about civil and human rights protections
From Enslavement to Freedom: Duckett Family Found in Primary Sources
Grades 4 & up (90 Minutes)
Students engage in an interactive guided tour learning about the free and enslaved people who lived and labored at Marietta, a 19th century tobacco plantation. The focus for this field trip is on how to use primary sources to discover the history of the people who lived and labored at Marietta and how they lived immediately after the U.S. Civil War. The Duckett family was enslaved at Marietta for over three generations, and they settled in D.C. and Alexandria, VA after Emancipation. Students use authentic documents from census records, maps, tax records, wills, and court records to connect the Ducketts to life after the Civil War.
Topic: Using Primary Sources
- Students will identify data in U.S. Census records, tax records, photographs, maps and newspaper articles.
Topic: Historical Thinking Skills
- Using inductive reasoning students will use data they collect to build a brief family narrative about the formerly enslaved Duckett family freed from Marietta by 1865.
Build-Your-Own Field Trip
Students engage in an interactive guided tour learning about the free and enslaved people who lived and labored at Marietta. Choose one or more of these activities to complement the tour:
Slavery Shaped by Law (grades 8-12):
- A life size timeline is unscrambled revealing the evolution of oppressive laws.
Freedom Routes (grades 6-12):
- Trace the primary pathways freedom takers traveled north from Maryland. Maps and historical runaway ads provide clues.
Pack-a-Sack (grades 3-10):
- Select key items freedom seekers chose to carry on their flight to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Scavenger Hunt (grades preK-5):
- While on the tour, use the scavenger hunt clues to identify key aspects of life at Marietta for the free and the enslaved.
